Made You Up Read Online Free Page A

who’d been talking to Clifford before class had started. Maybe, just maybe, her last name would be between Ric- and Rid-.
    â€œALEXANDRA RIDGEMONT.”
    Damn.
    Everyone turned to look at me as I sat down behind Miles. If they hadn’t noticed me before, they did now—and the hair. Oh, the hair . . .
    Stop it, idiot! It’s fine, they’re not looking at you. Okay, they are looking at you. But they’re not coming after you. You’re okay. Everything’s okay.
    â€œAlex is fine,” I said weakly.
    â€œMARIA WOLF.”
    â€œRia!” the last girl said, almost skipping to her spot behind me. Her strawberry blond ponytail jumped happily as she went.
    Mr. Gunthrie tossed the class list back onto his desk and stood at the front of the room, hands clasped behind his back, square jaw high.
    â€œTODAY WE WILL HAVE PAIR DISCUSSIONS OF YOUR SUMMER READING. I WILL PICK THE PAIRS. THERE WILL BE NO SWITCHING, TRADING, OR COMPLAINING. IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?”
    â€œYES, SIR!”
    â€œGOOD.”
    As if he remembered all of our names after only seeing them once, Mr. Gunthrie pulled pairs out of thin air.
    Being stuck in the seat behind Miles was my payment for getting to be partners with Tucker, I guess.
    â€œI didn’t know you’d be in my class!” I said when I raced out of my seat and slid into the chair behind his. He was the one person in this room who didn’t give me the creeps. “And you weren’t lying about this place.”
    â€œPeople around these parts don’t lie about a thing like that.” Tucker tipped an imaginary ten-gallon hat. “And you didn’t tell me you were going to be in AP English. I could’ve told you. Mr. Gunthrie teaches the only one in the school.” He held up the papers he’d scribbled on. “I already finished the discussion. He does the same first assignment every year. Hope you don’t mind.” He paused, frowning over my shoulder. “God. Hendricks is doing that thing again. I don’t even see why she likes him.”
    Celia Hendricks, who’d returned wearing a baggy pair of black sweatpants, was leaning over her chair and doingsome weird flips with her hair and whisper-calling Miles, who had his back to her. When he ignored her, she began launching balled-up pieces of notebook paper at his head.
    â€œWhy do you hate him so much?” I asked Tucker.
    â€œI don’t know if ‘hate’ is the right word,” he replied. “‘Am afraid of him,’ ‘wish he’d stop staring,’ and ‘think he’s a lunatic’ are more accurate.”
    â€œAfraid of him?”
    â€œThe whole school is.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œBecause it’s impossible to know what’s going on in his head.” Tucker looked back to me. “Have you ever seen a person completely change? Like, completely completely? So much that they don’t even have the same facial expressions they used to? That’s what happened to him.”
    I hesitated at Tucker’s sudden seriousness. “Sounds creepy.”
    â€œIt was creepy.” Tucker concentrated on a design someone had etched into his desktop. “And then, he, you know. Had to be the best . . .”
    â€œYou . . . wait a minute . . . he’s the valedictorian?”
    I knew Tucker didn’t like the valedictorian, but during his rants at work he’d never said who it was. Just that the kid didn’t deserve it.
    â€œIt’s not even that he’s beating me!” Tucker hissed, casting a quick look back at Miles. “It’s that he doesn’t try . He doesn’t even have to read the book! He just knows everything! I mean, he was sort of like that in middle school, but he was never the best. Half the time he didn’t do his work because he thought it was pointless.”
    I looked back at Miles. He and Claude had apparently finished their discussion, and he’d